


together

by im_baby_kiaronna (kiaronna)



Category: Skinjacker - Neal Shusterman
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-11
Updated: 2011-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 08:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23468689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiaronna/pseuds/im_baby_kiaronna
Summary: The story of Allie and Mikey McGill after the book ended, until they finally got where they were going.It didn't matter where they were going, or why. All that mattered was that they were going together.
Relationships: Allie the Outcast/Mikey McGill
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	together

**Author's Note:**

> I loved this book and this series when it came out  
> also, fair warning, this was written by an actual child (me) and I am just preserving my kid artwork, basically  
> wow apparently this is the first work for this series, who knew

They didn't really have a destination.

The good thing about travelling in Everlost was that you never got tired, and that you never got hungry. You could go on forever. They could see Paris, or China, or England. They could see everything that most teens their age would die to see, the humorous part of that being that they were already dead. But that wasn't what they ended up doing. Allie and the former monster Mikey McGill were just travelling. To wherever their footsteps took them, to do good deeds and earn his salvation, to get where they were going. Allie wasn't going to let them fall into a niche and start repeating themselves, as she had had enough of niches and stupid Marys. So anytime she decided they were just circling around a town, getting too comfortable, she insisted that they move on.

Once, a boy Afterlight travelled with them, about ten years old, but he eventually decided that running around doing good deeds wasn't really for him. Little boys were little boys, after all. When he parted with them, Allie swore she saw an airship following them for a day afterwards.

Regardless of that, they usually travelled alone. Well, as alone as together can be. Because they were together, all the time. They had their quarrels here and there, but they had forever to make it up to each other. Once, when she tried to leave a city without him, that stupid Diving horse of his just dragged him straight to her. By his hair. She liked travelling with him, she discovered, not just because it made her feel accomplished, but because it felt _right_. And besides, it was her goal now. To get him where he was going, help him be confident in his own humanity and goodness. To get them both where they were going. The coin in her back pocket got warmer every day, as five years passed, then ten, then twenty. Every time they found a confused Greensoul, or pulled a sinking Afterlight out of the earth, seeing as how Mikey's talent was very useful, she watched him become a better person.

They hadn't seen Nick or Mary in a long time, but that was all right. Allie had the feeling they'd see them again someday, for better or worse. Pretty soon, travelling just became natural, a part of them, arriving and helping and leaving. She never had gone home. She kept telling herself she was going to, kept promising herself that whenever they travelled back to her good old home state, she would speak up and ask Mikey if they could take a short detour. And even though she found that they consistently (no matter that they never travelled consistently anywhere else) passed through that state, she could never make the words come out of her mouth. What if she sunk into the floor? What if it was too much for her to handle? She had become accustomed to people never seeing her, but she didn't know if she could handle her parents doing that.

Then, there was that one night, even though nights didn't exist and they didn't have to sleep, that they were curled up together in a tiny deadspace, and _he_ brought it up. Mikey was becoming more human with every passing hour; he never growled anymore, nor did he ever forget that he possessed human hands instead of monster ones. He never called himself The McGill on accident, and sometimes, when he came from the ground, he would look so vulnerable that she could hardly believe he had once been a _creature_. And even though Allie never noticed it, he was slowly becoming more and more aware of the fact that they were of different genders, that he got a tingly feeling in him when she smiled, and that Allie was very pretty. The last two happened constantly, whether he liked it or not.

"I think you need to go home. Maybe not inside, but just home." With an uncomfortable breath in, he made himself look at her face. "It's been your goal, Allie, for a long time. And we both know how you love your goals." He smiled at her, but she wasn't smiling back.

"...What if it's too much?" She finally whispered. "What if I sink through the ground? What if somebody in my family died? What if nobody survived that car crash? I can't possess someone, Mikey, I know I can't. They'd never believe it, and I don't want to remember my mom or dad looking at me in disgust and calling the cops as our final goodbye."

If there were crickets in Everlost, they'd be chirping.

"I don't know," he muttered, and rolled over onto his back and looked into the Everlost sky. "I can't tell you what to do. It's your family, your past." He let out a sigh, then covered his eyes with his arms. "But if you sink, Allie, I swear. Shiloh and I will get you again. You know we will. It's a good deed, after all."

"Oh, right. You wouldn't do it otherwise." She smiled and nudged him in the shoulder, and he had that stupid tingly feeling in his chest. "Okay. I'll do it. I'll go. I don't know if I'll go inside the house or not, but I will go." She curled up, back to him, and he curled up opposite her, and Shiloh the Diving Horse whinnied a little bit. They both loved the horse, but sharing a deadspot where one person died was hard enough to do without a thousand pound animal that smelled like salt. At least they had a pillow.

"Mikey?"

"Yes?" He muttered, eyes closed.

"Thank you. 'Night."

"Goodnight."

Once he was sure she was asleep, he pulled the coin out of his pocket. Whether it was a coin or a simple lump of metal, he didn't know. But according to some, once it was warm enough, it would get you where you were going. It was getting warmer, to the extent of being hot. Pulling out yet another item from his pocket, he made a simple tally mark, then counted slowly.

Fifty-nine years.

Tomorrow, the sixtieth year would come. And he could get where he was going. Maybe, if he held the coin long enough, he could leave tonight. It was certainly warm enough. But he had promised himself, and he had promised Allie. He would do sixty years of halfway- he chuckled at that- decent deeds. Then, he would have made penance for his years as the McGill. He knew Allie didn't like paying attention to calendars or years. She left that task to him. So she had no idea how many years it had been. For all she knew, he had stopped being the McGill hardly ten years ago. But he had wanted, desperately wanted, for Allie to go home once, to complete that task that sometimes made her face turn wistful, the expression that made his stomach drop. He had almost completed his task. Allie had to complete hers if she was to get where she was going.

He looked over at her, sound asleep, and thought of their years of travelling. What if... Where he was going wasn't the same place as her? What if his years of payment didn't count to heaven? What if, in the life he hardly remembered, he had been an awful person? Not being with Allie was almost unimaginable. They had been together for a long time, longer than most alive people got to spend with those they loved.

He put his measure of the years back in his pocket, biting the inside of his cheek. He had to remind himself that, no matter what, he would get Allie where she was going. Even if where she was going didn't involve him. It would be his last good deed, watching her coin send her off in a flash of light.

So when, at the end of the next day, after a breakdown by Allie at the fact that her parents were dead, and had been so for twenty years, he told her about it. That it was the last day, that he was ready. That everything they had to do was done, that there was nothing left but getting where they were going.

Both teenagers brought out their coins, sitting in a deadspot near her house, looking at each other with excitement and a lot of fear.

"We're going to go together," Allie announced with her usual determinedness. They locked eyes, and she reached for his hand, clutching it tight.

"Allie," he said, as the coin in his palm got warmer and warmer, "I just wanted to say..." He lost the words coming out of his mouth, and decided that it would be better not to continue that train of thought.

She smiled, and he realized he wanted to leave Everlost with that tingling happiness inside him. "You can tell me when we get there, you idiot." She leaned forwards and kissed him on the cheek, and then he kissed her on the mouth. The warmth from the coin and the kiss spread throughout their whole bodies like wildfire. They opened their eyes, and together, they could see everything they'd had ever wondered about, ever dreamed of, ever wanted and hoped for and loved...

It didn't matter whether they had an actual destination, or whether the place where they were going was good or bad. It didn't matter where they were going, or why. All that mattered was that they were going there together.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks bye


End file.
